Politics of a Judicial Nomination:  Yesterday, David Stras posted "The Politics of the Sotomayor Nomination" at SCOTUSblog to inform readers "of what they can expect from the remainder of the confirmation process..."  Stras' post provides an outlook on the nomination process that is slightly different from earlier SCOTUSblog posts.  For example, he writes, "I believe that the Ricci case could be a stumbling block for Sotomayor[,]" because race has been injected into the evaluation process, and because "racial discrimination is an issue that resonates with the American public and if the lower court decision is shown to be outside the mainstream...then it is an aspect of her jurisprudence that... will be explored during the confirmation hearings."  Joel Jacobsen also comments on the nomination at Judging Crimes.  He writes that Judge Sotomayor's experience as a trial judge is more important than her race, ethnicity or gender.

Judge Sotomayor on Crime and Race:  At Sentencing Law and Policy, Doug Berman posts on Michael Doyle's McClatchy Newspaper article that reports Judge Sotomayor is not soft on crime.  According to McClatchy News, from a sample of 90 criminal law related cases heard by Judge Sotomayor since January 2002, she has "sided with the government 65 times and prisoners and defendants 25 times."  At National Journal Online, Stuart Taylor Jr. reports on Tom Goldstein's study of  97 race-related cases that Judge Sotomayor has decided while on the Court of Appeals. While Goldstein concluded it was "absurd to say that Sotomayor allows race to infect her decisionmaking[,]" Taylor thinks "[o]thers may look at the same cases and draw different conclusions."

Bob Barr on Troy Davis:  At Volokh Conspiracy, Jonathan Adler reports on Bob Barr's Op-ed in today's New York Times.  In the Op-ed, the former Republican Representative asks the Supreme Court to grant the habeas petition of Georgia death row inmate Troy Davis.  Our recent posts on Davis can be found here, here, and here.